The Big Story: Quarantined TB patient is son-in-law of CDC microbiologist

ATLANTA—The honeymooner quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was identified Thursday as an Atlanta personal injury lawyer whose new father-in-law is a Centers for Disease Control microbiologist specializing in TB.

Andrew Speaker returned last week from his wedding and honeymoon trip through Italy, the Greek isles and other spots in Europe.

His father-in-law, Robert C. Cooksey, is a CDC microbiologist whose specialty is TB and other bacteria.

Bob Cooksey would not comment on whether he reported 31-year-old His wife, Sarah, is a third-year law student at Atlanta's Emory UniversitySpeaker, to federal health authorities.

In a statement issued through the CDC, Cooksey also said that neither he nor his CDC laboratory was the source of his son-in-law’s TB.

A U.S. border inspector who allowed Speaker back into the country, disregarding a computer warning to stop the man and don protective gear, has been removed from border duty, officials said Thursday.

The unidentified inspector explained that he was no doctor but that the infected man seemed perfectly healthy and that he thought the warning was merely "discretionary," officials briefed on the case told The Associated Press.

The CDC had no immediate comment on how the case came to the attention of federal health authorities.

“I’m hoping and praying that he’s getting the proper treatment, that my daughter is holding up mentally and physically,” Cooksey told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Speaker said in a newspaper interview that he knew he had TB when he flew from Atlanta to Europe in mid-May for his wedding and honeymoon, but that he did not find out until he was already in Rome that it was an extensively drug-resistant strain considered especially dangerous.

Despite warnings from federal health officials not to board another long flight, he flew home for treatment, fearing he wouldn’t survive if he didn’t reach the U.S., he said.

He was quarantined May 25, after his return from his honeymoon, in the first such action taken by the federal government since 1963.

On Thursday, he was flown from Atlanta to Denver, accompanied by his wife and federal marshals, to be treated at Denver’s National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

The chief of the hospital’s infectious-disease division said that he is optimistic Speaker can be cured, because he is believed to be in the early stages of the disease.

Doctors planned to begin treating him immediately with two antibiotics, one oral and one intravenous. He also will undergo a test to evaluate how infectious he is and a CT scan and lung X-ray.

Doctors hope to also determine where he contracted the disease, which has been found around the world and exists in pockets in Russia and Asia.

He will be kept in a special unit with a ventilation system to prevent the escape of germs.

Cooksey was worked at the CDC for 32 years and is in the CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, where he works with TB and other organisms.

“As part of my job, I am regularly tested for TB. I do not have TB, nor have I ever had TB,” he said in a statement. “My son-in-law’s TB did not originate from myself or the CDC’s labs, which operate under the highest levels of biosecurity.”

According to a biography posted on a Web site connected with Speaker’s law firm, the young lawyer attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in finance, then attended University of Georgia’s law school.

Health law experts said Speaker could be sued if others contract the disease.